PM Narendra Modi slams Congress, lauds Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Hajipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday trained his guns on Congress accusing it of “neglecting” Bihar’s development since independence and recalled Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s past association with NDA as he inaugurated a number of railway projects here.

“This project was initiated when Nitish Kumar was Railway Minister and Atal ji was Prime Minister. The dream of that time is being realised now. Had this not been neglected in last 10 years and work been taken up for it even under routine budget, even then it would have been completed in six-seven years,” Modi said, dedicating to the nation the Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge here, which is stated to be the longest in the country. He rued that the cost of the project escalated from its earlier estimate of Rs 600 crore to Rs 3,000 crore due to the “delay”. “This money belongs to people,” he said.

Leaving aside political rivalry, Modi who has shared a contentious relationship with Kumar in the past, also chose the occasion to laud the Bihar Chief Minister’s efforts in taking forward the Centre's rural electrification scheme in Bihar.